A Simple Thought
by Eternal Nightingale
Summary: Ichiruki,Possible AU to HM arc. A normal night to clear her head leads to unwanted conclusions in a certain shinigami's heart. 'Forgive me...'


**You listen to a sad song from the Bleach ost collection and happen to be in an Ichiruki mood, this is what's going to happen to you. A random one-shot enters your mind and it won't leave you alone till you type it down. -sighs-**

**Well, I do love the pairing as much as I love Narusaku, so it's not that bad. Though I really wish I'd stop getting inspiration in the middle of the night. T.T **

**Is there a solid plot in this? No, probably not I just went along with what my muses were telling me. It's definitely after the HM arc, my interpretation of what happens afterwards anyways. Since the arc isn't even over yet. **

**Rukia's exact thoughts of her last sentence at the end of this, will be up to you guys to decipher what she means...cause I'm still arguing with my inner self on that lol. **

**My Narusaku will be updated next week for any interested and hope you enjoy this evil seed my mind created...last night. **

**Disclaimer: Bleach is way too complicated for me to own, and a lot of the characters piss me off lol. It belongs to Kubo-sama. **

_I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again  
and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new.  
What is broken is broken...  
and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best  
then mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.  
-Margaret Mitchell_

* * *

The first night of Autumn. Rukia loved these nights. It was never too hot, and never too cold. It was just right. You didn't need a heavy sweater, and the cool wind refreshed your skin from a warm Autumn day.

The breeze seemed to agree with the shinigami's thoughts as it blew through her. Locks of her dark black hair swaying back and forth. Her violet eyes studying the full moon that glowed throughout Karakura town.

It seemed the idiot she called a partner was right. The roof of the Kurosaki clinic was the best view to look at when you needed to clear your thoughts. Maybe Ichigo visited this spot a lot then. To clear his own head of the troublesome thoughts that bother him.

Rukia stretched out her arms and leaned against the tiles of the clinic's roof. She had been on the roof for nearly two hours, and though it was slow, she was beginning to feel the ease of comfort enter her mind.

Her violet eyes studied her feet as she returned to her previous deep thinking.

She had been in this 'Thinker' mode as Ichigo called it, since last week. He couldn't blame or be annoyed with her though. She had her reasons. Reasons, that for the moment at least, he didn't need to know about.

Besides, she pouted her lip in inner brooding, he was a numskull who would never understand what she was going through at the moment.

Her eyes became melancholy and they looked back up at the moon. With the Aizen incident nearly over and Inoue safely back home, she would have assumed the feeling of uneasiness should have left her body.

It didn't.

It wasn't as bad as before. She was truly glad Inoue was safe and that Aizen's plan never managed to take its full shape. Still, her own battle with an Espada, had reluctantly, left a permanent scar in her being.

Yes, that must be it. That ...whatever he called himself. Not Kaien-dono. No, that thing wasn't him, but for half of that battle, she really thought he was.

A stray pebble on the roof of the clinic makes a fast descend to the ground below as Rukia kicks it away. She had forgotten Kaien's words so easily, and only seemed to remember them when she was near the brink of death.

It seemed, even in death, Kaien-dono kept encouraging her to keep pushing forward.

She almost died. She frowned when the thought popped into her head for the thousandth time that night.

And whenever the thought returned, the uneasy feeling in her gut would return as well.

Rukia touched her lower torso, feeling the scar from the zanpakuto that pierced her flesh weeks ago. She grimaced. Her nii-sama and Hanataro saved her life just in time. If they had come minutes later...

Rukia laid flat on the roof and looked up at the stars that had remained out of her eye's view earlier.

Something was wrong. But what? Why did she feel like her own battle wasn't over? She was meant to keep doing something else.

And why was it whenever she thought of these thoughts, Ichigo would come to mind. His dark amber eyes shining with an emotion she refused to name.

Was she going to do it again? Was something going to make her leave again, and make him worry over a friend again...just when he recovered another?

Rukia's violet eyes narrowed in self-disgust. Was she really so horrible as to think she would easily do it again...even if was for the same reasons, to keep him safe.

Did that battle with the Espada influence her train of thought so deeply. She grunted at the thought and rolled over to her side.

She was deeply confused, which rarely happened to her. The battle influenced her is some sense, she knew that much. But was the influence good or bad? And did that battle really have anything to do with the feeling in her gut telling her to keep caution and awareness by her side.

And then there was Ichigo. How was he involved in any of this? Was his opinion that important to her now?

The shinigami's petite body twitched as she let the piles of questions fill her brain with more unnecessary confusion.

It seemed she ruined the two hours it took to let her mind calm itself and enjoy the beautiful night sky.

"Perhaps I'm just being too tense again and thinking too much." Rukia spoke softly to herself.

"You're always thinking too much midget. Which is why you get those damn headaches all the time." The voice was familiar, and annoying.

Rukia sat up and turned to look down to see Ichigo sticking his head out the window. His signature scowl present on his face.

"You don't seem to know the meaning of personal conversations do you Ichigo?" Rukia asked the orange-haired boy dryly. Her eyes drooping in slight annoyance.

"Not my fault you talk too damn loud, I can hear you voice from all the way inside my room." Ichigo rolled his eyes when Rukia responded to his words with a simple sticking out of the tongue.

"Just get inside will ya? You've been up there since ten and it's past midnight. Though you may not believe it, I got school tomorrow and so do you midget." His tone clearly showed anger and lack of patience towards the female shinigami, but Rukia knew better.

Ichigo had been on edge since the capture of Aizen. Always looking behind his back, and constantly asking her, Uryuu, Chad, and Inoue if everything was okay. Making sure they never had some unknown injury, or if they were attacked by hollows.

He denied doing it of course, but they all knew. The battle at Hueco Mundo nearly cost him all of his friend's lives. It was only natural for him to be a bit more worried than usual. Though, Rukia still thinks he's over-reacting.

She gives a smirk and then scoots back up the roof. She hears a loud growl and the shifting of feet and clothes. Her violet eyes catch the glimpse of orange hair before Ichigo fully climbs up the roof and sits next to her.

His scowl was deeper and he was frowning more. "You're still a stubborn bitch you know that right?" He asked, his eyes trying not to twitch as she looked at him innocently.

Her expression quickly changed and she looked at the moon again. "We all need time to think moron. Even me, I'm sorry if my thoughts are an inconvenience to you." He had expected her tone to be sarcastic, but Rukia spoke genuinely and her eyes didn't narrow in the usual sign of 'challenge that you annoying piece of fruit'.

Ichigo grunted and scratched the back of his head. He supposed she was right. Even he had time to think and clear his head of the past months events. Perhaps Rukia hadn't.

The two stayed silent then. Rukia returning to her thoughts, and Ichigo wondering if Rukia was more affected by the Hueco Mundo incident than she had led on.

"You all right?" He asked suddenly, his tone soft and gruff.

Rukia gave him a side glance and returned to looking at the sky. "If you mean my injuries than of course. It was never anything serious fool."

Ichigo's eye twitched. "Not that you annoying midget, I know you're all patched up..." His voice faded away as he watched Rukia breath.

She was one of the first who nearly passed away in that mission. And though he'd rather fight a million hollows at once before admitting it, it scared the shit out of him when he felt her reiatsu nearly fade away. She was the last person he wanted to lose.

If it weren't for the fact that he was in a middle of a battle when he felt Byakuya's reiatsu show up and Rukia's suddenly reappear, he would have jumped in joy...well in his head anyways.

He grunted to himself and looked away, a slight blush on his cheeks. He was damn happy when he saw her again, but he wasn't gonna admit that either.

"Then what?" a peeved voice broke through the teenager's thoughts. Amber eyes looked down to meet with Rukia's confused stare.

He blinked before realizing he hadn't finished saying what he wanted to say. "Right. Sorry 'bout that. What I meant to ask was you all right up here?" His finger pointed to the side of his head.

Rukia smiled and nodded slowly before returning her gaze to the sky. "Is it that scary watching me think about things for more than hour at a time?" She spoke humorously.

"It wasn't meant like that idiot. I meant if something's got you worried that you have to listen to my advice for once and actually go up here to think." He scowl had lessened as he spoke, and his eyes showed worry.

She laughed gently. "No, nothing like that. I just wanted to think without interruption...that's all." Her violet eyes turned to give Ichigo a somewhat sympathetic stare. "Sorry if I worried you."

Ichigo snorted and began to slide down the roof towards his window. "As if I'd be worried over something like that...if you're okay then it's fine, that's all I needed to hear."

He didn't want to leave, but from the strange behavior he was getting from Rukia, he knew he wasn't going to get a straight-forward answer from her tonight. He'll let her have her alone time, and hopefully the old Rukia he knew would be back by morning. Ichigo smiled at the thought.

The breeze blew over them. Ichigo stopped his movement and let himself enjoy the night air. Rukia secretly smiled and watched the peaceful look that fell on Ichigo's face for a moment.

"Thank you." Her lips moved on their own, but it made the boy stop his movements towards his room.

Still leaning half his body on the roof, Ichigo turned questioning amber eyes in Rukia's direction and asked. "Thank you? What the hell for?" he voice was questioning but gentle for his usual gruff replies.

"For everything you've done...for everyone...for me...for everything you will do. I suppose I'm thanking you ahead of schedule." Rukia smiled genuinely at him for the first time since leaving soul society after Aizen was brought in.

To say Ichigo was stunned would be an understatement. His eyes were slightly wide, and his mouth partly opened. Rukia had thanked him, which was a rarity on the small shinigami's part to give to anyone. Let alone some annoying substitute shinigami she got stuck with as a friend.

He stayed silent for a moment, and looked at her. Then he smiled back.

"No problem. Thank you...for staying alive back there. Even if you pissed me off for getting injured like that." He smirked when he saw the grin on her face as she shook her head at his brash words.

"You never change do you Ichigo?"

"Suppose I didn't. I'll live with it though."

Violet locked with Amber and the two shinigami stared at each other. Words dared not spoken out loud shared between the two by eye contact alone.

"I'll see you down there, and don't take too much longer dammnit! I can't afford to miss school anymore if I have to take care of a sick midget for being in the cool night too long." with that, Ichigo hopped back down to his window and into his room. A calm expression on his face.

Rukia looked at the spot he once occupied and frowned. It was something she was no longer going to able to deny. Not anymore. She could see it. The feelings he was hiding from her. Feelings of deep affection he was trying to hide. Deep affection...for her.

All those insults were poor attempts on his part to hide the fact that he knew, and what he thought she didn't know but did.

She sighed. The full moon lost its shine and the stars seemed too bright for her now.

Rukia began her slow descent towards the edge of the roof and towards Ichigo's room. Her violet eyes trying to hide the shimmering liquid forming on the edge of her lower eyelids.

She concluded something this night as she landed softly on the windowsill, and spotted Ichigo putting away his books, his back turned from her.

Something she really hated to accept as true, but found out was the only conclusion to the feeling in her gut she was getting.

His tall frame stood back out straight. His orange hair flowing with the wind coming in through the open window.

'I'll be forced to leave you again, but I think...it'll be my choice to leave this time...Ichigo.'

* * *

**My first attempt at these two and it is DONE!  
Forgive my grammar errors, it was pretty late and my eyes were demanding sleep lol.  
If you enjoyed please leave a review...or not...:P**

**Bleach OST song: Here to Stay**

**End**


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